accommodated customers both inside and outside the restaurant. The sisters struggled to keep the restaurant open during World War II as a result of beef rationing; however, the restaurant flourished following the end of the war. They eventually bought the property that they were initially leasing from J.C. Nichols. A second Kansas City area Winstead's was opened in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Johnny Ray's Drive-In is now located in the former Winstead's building in Lee's Summit. One was opened in Independence, Mo. in 1946 on south Main St.(east side, south of the Firestone Tire Service). It remained until the retirement of the owner(s) in 1952. Kathryn Winstead retired from the restaurant business in 1952, and she turned over control of the business to Nellie and Gordon Montgomery. They added french fries and milkshakes to the limited menu in 1957. Kathryn Winstead died in 1967, and the Montgomerys sold Winstead's restaurant two years later to Morris and Victor Lerner, brothers who owned King Louie International, a Kansas City-based corporation that ran bowling alleys and made bowling attire. The Lerners expanded by opening two new Winstead's locations - one in Kansas City North and the other in Overland Park, Kansas. In 1982, the Lerner family sold King Louie International to an investment group that considered closing or divesting themselves of the small chain. A local restaurateur, Nabil Haddad, a franchisee and a major stockholder in the McDonald's corporation, today oversees seven Winstead's locations in the greater Kansas City area. Each of the Winstead's locations has a distinctive tower on the front of an art deco-style building. Winstead's closed its location at 10313 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park in August 2015. Officials representing the Metcalf 103 shopping center where the restaurant was located indicated that the restaurant's lease was set to expire at the end of August. On April 15, 2019 Winstead's closed its location at 12056 W 95th St. in Lenexa, KS. See also List of fast-food restaurants List of hamburger restaurants References External links 1936 establishments in Illinois Companies based in Kansas City, Missouri Hamburger restaurants in the United States Regional restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants established in 1936 Restaurants in Missouri Streamline Moderne architecture in Missouri